Name servers are a fundamental part of the Domain Name System (DNS) and define what the authoritative DNS server that holds the actual DNS records for a domain is.
What Do Name Servers Do?
Name servers are ‘DNS Servers’ that the domain administrator controls and are used for resolving domain names into IP addresses and other types of DNS query’s. These servers act as sort of a phonebook directory that the website owner can add/edit/remove DNS Records into.
An example of this is the current domain ‘itcrashcourse.com’ which uses Cloudflare to host its DNS records. The below picture shows the DNS records for the domain and two name servers (wesley.ns.cloudflare.com, yolanda.ns.cloudflare.com) these records DNS records are saved on.
Name Servers often come in pairs for redundancy and ensuring DNS still works even if a single server fails or needs to be restarted for maintenance.
How Are Name Servers Set?
When you register a domain name, the provider will often set their default name servers to work with their included DNS service or web-hosting service. If you intend to host your DNS separately, such as with Cloudflare or another hosting provider you may need to set your own custom Name Servers on the domain.
Conclusion
Name servers play a vital role in linking domains to their respective Authoritative Name Servers, allowing DNS query’s to be made. It’s important to distinguish that the Name Servers set on the domain itself are only pointers to the DNS Servers where DNS records stored and themselves do not store DNS records.
Do you have any questions on Name Servers or DNS? Let us know in the comments below
